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Charles Thomas
Charles Thomas was a student at Shimer College during the early Seminary period. He is listed in the First Biennial Register and Circular (1855), indicating attendance between 1853 and 1855. He is also listed as a student assistant in 1855, but as "not presently employed" in the 1856 register. The Register and Circular lists his hometown as Saratoga, New York, approximately 1342 kilometers (805.2 miles) from Mount Carroll, the second-greatest of any student attending during the Seminary's first two years. He was the son of Hermon Thomas (an acquaintance of Mrs. Shimer), and a former pupil of her friend Edward Youmans. Later becoming a medical doctor, Thomas wrote his MD thesis on "Therapeutical properties of Saratoga mineral waters" in 1865. In 1867, he was appointed to the faculty of the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia.http://books.google.com/books?id=f_-SVxIluc0C&pg=PA30 He authored numerous papers on ophthalmology. Profiled *on Worldcat *in University of Pennsylvania, vol. 2, 1902, pp. 182-183: *:THOMAS, Charles Hermon, 1839 *:Class of 1865 Med. Born in Saratoga county, N. Y., 1839; graduated Medical Department, University of Pennsylvania, 1865; Assistant Physician to Lying-in-Charity, 1865-70; Visiting Surgeon to Woman's Hospital, 1867-76; Visiting Surgeon to Philadelphia Hospital, 1883-85; Professor Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1867-76; private soldier, hospital steward and Surgeon in Union Army during Civil War; practicing physician in Philadelphia; Director American Society for Extension of University Teaching. *:CHARLES HERMON THOMAS, M.D., was born in Saratoga county, New York, December 4, 1839, the son of Hermon and Harriet (Middlebrook) Thomas. Descended from New England stock on both sides, his ancestors resided in Saratoga county, New York, from its earliest settlement. His early education was acquired at Ballston Spa Academy, Mount Carroll Seminary, and as a private pupil of Prof. Edward L. Youmans. In the fall of 1861 he entered the army as a private in Havelock Battery of Albany, New York. In the spring of the following year he was appointed hospital steward in the regular army, and was ordered on duty at Satterlee Hospital in West Philadelphia, from which post, by special personal order of Surgeon-General Hammond, he attended the lecture courses in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania and graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 1865. By special order of the Secretary of War he was authorized to come up for examination for the post of Assistant Surgeon in the United States Army, but instead accepted an appointment, March 19, 1865, as Acting Assistant Surgeon in the United States Army, with assignment to field duty with the Army of the Potomac. Dr. Thomas was present at the fall of Petersburg, and at the close of the war, in May 1865, he returned to Philadelphia. For three months he was substitute Resident Physician in the surgical wards of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and for six months Resident Physician at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. From 1865 to 1870 he was Assistant Physician to the Lying-In-Charity, and from 1867 to 1876 Visiting surgeon to the woman's Hospital and Professor of Materia Medica and therapeutics in the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. He was Visiting Surgeon to the Philadelphia Hospital in 1883-1885. Dr. Thomas belongs to a large number of medical societies. He was one of the founders and a Vice-President of the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia; is a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; and has membership in the American Ophthalmological Society, the American Medical Association and its Ophthalmological Section, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, and the Philadelphia County Medical Society, of which he was at one time Vice President. He is also a member of the Penn Club and the Municipal League. For many years Dr. Thomas has been actively identified with the work of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, and at present he is a Director of that society. On March 18, 1874, he married Mrs. Eliza Marcella Kirk, nee Cameron; and in 1899 he was again married, to Miss Sarah M. Taylor. He has one son, Paul Kirk Middlebrook Thomas, and resides in Philadelphia. Further inquiry He might be the same as the Mr. Thomas reported as teaching a shorthand class in Savanna in the October 2, 1857, issue of the Republican. References Category:Physicians